Atiku’s coalition not in interest of Nigeria—–ADC factional leader, Kachukwu

...Says coalition without Obi as ADC Presidential candidate unacceptable

By Chris Ochayi

The African Democratic Congress, ADC, Presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Dumebi Kachukwu has vowed to resist those trying to hijack the party through the backdoor in the name of coalition.

Kachukwu, who is leading a faction of the party following the handing over of the leadership of the party to the coalition formed by former Vice President, Atikiu Abubakar on Wednesday, declared that the motive behind the coalition and hijack of the ADC was not in the interest of Nigerians.

Speaking at a press briefing on Thursday in Abuja, Kachukwu resolved to fight with last pinch of his blood to stop the indiscriminate hijack of ADC, the party he said they suffered to build together by some people for their personal interest.

The former presidential candidate alleged that the coalition designed and engineered to produce Atiku Abubakar as its presidential flag bearer ahead of 2027 general elections cannot stand, noting that he will only endorse any coalition that will produce Mr. Peter Obi as candidate of ADC.

Kachukwu, who threatened to seek legal redress over the take over of ADC, said, “We’re exploring all options.INEC still happens to be the regulator of political parties. Yes, the courts still remain the last hope of the common man.

“The Nigerian people are our witnesses in what is going on, and our case will go before these three sets of people.”

According to him, “The people who are coming through the window, through the back door, they don’t own our party. They’ve not taken over our party. We are fighting for our party, I assure you.

“I assure all our party members across the country, all of you, are sending me message, I assure you that won’t go down, won’t let go of our party like this. Thank you.

“Our party is worth fighting for. I assure all of you here that I’ll fight for this, but I’ll fight for you. I won’t let go. I won’t give up our party to these people, no matter how rich they are, no matter how powerful they are, no matter how deep their pockets, no matter the amount of threats made against me, my family, or to you the party members, no matter the amount of blackmail, blackmail me all day long.

“Write anything you want to write, I don’t bother. I don’t read those things. I am mission focused. We are mission focused as a party, and we’ll get where we want to go.”

Kachukwu emphasized that his faction will first take the battle to the door step of the Independent National Electoral Commission, iNEC, to very if there is a vacuum in the ADC to know if if the conversation will hold immediately to elect officials for the party.

He said, “We are also asking INEC if there be a vacuum. We need to do a convention immediately. So at the current National Executive Council, NEC, of the party, made up of the state chairmen, will then convene a convention immediately so that a new leadership of the party will emerge.

“That’s our pathway to resolving the issues in the party. I also want to make something clear to a lot of friends and well wishers that there are people who have asked me, why can’t we work with these people?

“I said yesterday, ADC, our Logo is a handshake. A handshake signifies peace, signifies friendliness. We are welcoming everybody, we actually welcome people to the party. We are not excluding people from coming to party. We need people coming to the party.

“Our issue is that we say that these people came in through the back door, if you want to come into our party, come through the front door. The whole world witnessed what happened yesterday. A man was announced as the interim chairman of the party and his party membership card was given to him right in that very place. How does that even begin to make sense in a democratic society.

“Someone is just announced as interim chairman, and you’re not at that point where you’re making me a member of the party. That’s when you are saying is interim chairman? What kind of party is this?

“All over social media we know what happened
These parties be APC, PDP, Labour Patty, the Obedient and all these people. Their brand of politics, where all they do is to insult themselves, threaten themselves all over social media. We ADC we are not used to this. What is going on right now? We’re not used to this. It’s not. We are people who are decent. We don’t operate in this manner, so what they are doing is alien to us as a people, as a party.

“But I’m saying that we cannot be cowed. I’m the last person that anybody can cow if you believe that by threatening, by blackmailing, by seeing us often, it will make us change or move our position. You are making a big mistake. Dumebi Kachukwu is the last person who you can threaten.”

He recalled that, “Late last year, they approached me concerning this. This coalition, eventually, early this year, I agreed to have a meeting with them, a close friend of mine persuaded me to go for a meeting and hear these people out. I went for this meeting that had former ministers, a former highly placed person in the last government, and they presented their case to me, the need for a coalition.

“And everything they said was about Bola Ahmed Tinubu and how his government has destroyed Nigeria. And this is typical of Nigerians..But I had only one question, because in opposition, you have only one ambition for you, to be the ruling party.

“So for us as a party, our plan is how we can win the elections, or we can ensure that we have more people from the party emerge in various offices across the country. So if somebody wants to speak about coalition and how to achieve this, we are willing to listen.

“But I had one question. And my question was this, seeing that we just finished eight years of President Mohammadu Buhari and that President Tinubu is in his first term, and that you people here, you old politicians, that you practice a politics of North and South region. Do you agree and accept that if there is a coalition, that the South is in their first term, and that the South will produce the flag bearer of this coalition. And his immediate response was, we are taking our power back.

“As someone who was the presidential candidate of a party that came fifth in last general elections, you are saying to me that I cannot aspire to office, that I should foreclose my ambition that because I happened to be from Southern part of Nigeria, and that is a presumed majority from the North of Nigeria, that you will take your power back.

“That was an absolute no for me. And that ended every talk about coalition, because it was very, very clear that the coalition was engineered to produce Atiku Abubakar as its flag bearer. Now I still say this today. I’m throwing this challenge to this coalition today that the flag bearer of this coalition will be someone from the Southern part of Nigeria, so that the second term of the Southerner will be finished.

“I make that categorical statement, and will admit you through the front door and see that there is a conversation to be had. I’m praying this conflict now let them know this, but you see that this is going to be the hardest thing for any one of them to do, because it’s a coalition that has been designed and engineered to produce Atiku Abubakar its flag bearer,”